1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a tray feeder which extracts one of trays having components stored therein from one of magazines, and moves the extracted tray to a component feed position, and a component mounting apparatus which is provided with the tray feeder.
2. Description of the Related Art
A tray feeder which extracts a tray having components stored therein from a magazine, and positions the extracted tray in a component feed position has been heretofore known as one kind of component feeding device provided in a component mounting apparatus. The tray feeder is provided with a reception portion which receives a magazine containing trays, and a tray movement portion which extracts one of the trays from the magazine through a tray extraction port provided in the reception portion and moves the extracted tray to the component feed position. The component mounting apparatus uses a mounting head to pick up ones of components fed by the tray feeder and mount the picked components on a substrate.
In such a tray feeder, when components are picked up sequentially from a tray and the tray is short of the components, a worker has to replace the tray manually (for example, JP-A-2012-114324). When the size of each component is large and the number of components which can be stored in the tray is small, the frequency of tray replacement work becomes high. In addition thereto, it is necessary to replace the tray at a timing when the tray becomes empty. Therefore, the worker has to constantly stay by the side of the tray feeder. In order to solve such a problem and improve workability, configuration may be made such that a magazine containing a plurality of trays short of components can be removed/inserted from/into the reception portion so that the plurality of trays can be replaced in a batch. However, since a cavity which is formed after the magazine has been removed from the reception portion is connected to the tray movement portion through the tray extraction port, there is a fear that the worker may touch by mistake the tray movement portion which is in operation.
A tray feeder disclosed in JP-A-11-163592 has been known as a tray feeder in which a plurality of trays can be replaced in a batch and which is free from the aforementioned disadvantage. The tray feeder includes a feed stage and two standby stages provided on opposite side portions of the feed stage so that a plurality of magazines can be moved between the feed stage and each standby stage. While a tray (for feeding components) is extracted from one magazine positioned in the feed stage, a worker can insert/remove any other magazine positioned in each standby stage to thereby replace the trays in a batch. In the tray feeder, a tray movement portion is provided on the side of the feed stage. Accordingly, the worker can be prevented from touching the tray movement portion in operation even when the worker puts his/her hand into a cavity which is formed after the other magazine positioned in the standby stage has been removed. Thus, working safety is high.
However, in the tray feeder disclosed in JP-A-11-163592, the plurality of stages (the feed stage and the two standby stages) are disposed laterally in order to make it easy to move the magazines which are heavy. For this reason, there is a problem that the tray feeder is increased in size.